He spent the majority of his career as a D.H., so in the absence of any defensive resume at all, let alone a good one, his case is entirely driven by his offensive production.
There are no 200-hit seasons. He exceeded 30 H.R. one time. He has just north of 2,200 career hits. And he needed a really lousy age-41 season to crawl past 300 career homers. Yes, he won 2 batting titles, but so did Willie freaking McGee. He had 2 Top-5 finishes in the M.V.P. race.
The only things that I can see supporting his case are that he is in the top 25 of career On-Base Percentage and in the top 35 in career OPS. And that Harold Baines was inexplicably selected last year, which should never be the basis for making ballot choices for the Hall. It appears that he will make it this year, and I'm not sure I fully understand why. Do any of you feel strongly about it?
If you're just going to be a DH, you better be among the offensive elite, year in and year out, in your time. He was very good for a long time, but rarely elite.
Check out these two pitchers. One is in the HOF, the other isn't.
Pitcher A: 270-153 W-L, 3.68 ERA, 2813 SO, 7.1 SO/9 innings, 3.58 SO/W, 8.7 H/9, Postseason - 7-8, 3.42 ERA
Pitcher B: 216-146 W-L, 3.46 ERA, 3116 SO, 8.6 SO/9 innings, 4.38 SO/W, 8.3 H/9, Postseason - 11-2, 2.23 ERA
Pitcher A is a HOFer (Mussina). Pitcher B is Curt Schilling. No freakin' way.
I wonder whose ass he had to eat to get into Cooperstown?
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Once he's dead.
Rose might be interested...
a 268 hitter got in the first time. Bringing in the fences in just about every park, especially in Yankee Stadium for the 6'8" 250 pound Dave Winfield so he could hit 40 homers, turned me off too. Plus I don't think "Mr. May" ever got to 40.
Are you generally against DHs? What if he had similar stats in the NL, and played serviceable 1B?
The stats in his favor: 300+ HRs, .312 lifetime avg, seven-time all-star. Those aren't nothing.
It's just that if you are only going to hit, it seems like some of the big milestones ought to be there. 500+ homers, 3,000+ hits, some individual seasons that just blow you away. He isn't even close to the milestones, and has really only 1 season that fits that description.
which is where he belongs.
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Than across history.